Is God on Your Nation’s Side?

This thought-provoking article explores the critical question every nation must ask: Is God on your nation’s side? Drawing from Scripture and history, it emphasizes that God’s favor isn’t automatic—it’s conditional on obedience, humility, and alignment with His purposes. Through examples from David, Joshua, and even Abraham Lincoln, the message is clear: true national blessing comes only when a people submit fully to the Lord.

“O that we were more deeply moved by the languishing state of Christ’s cause upon the earth today, by the inroads of the enemy and the awful desolation he has wrought. Alas that a spirit of indifference, or at least of fatalistic stoicism, is freezing so many of us.”

– A.W. Pink

For an individual or a nation, nothing is more important than the favor of God. If we have His favor, we can be confident all things will work together for our good (Romans 8:28). When we live under the canopy of God’s covenant, He gives us “power to get wealth” and many other blessings (Deuteronomy 8:18, Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

Romans 8:31 asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That means we have nothing to fear from our enemies. With the Lord on our side, there’s no foe too big, too powerful, or too crafty. When we walk in His victory procession, we can triumph in every situation (2 Corinthians 2:14).

King David understood this. That’s why he could be so confident when he faced nine-foot-tall Goliath with just a slingshot and five smooth stones (1 Samuel 17).

But in Psalm 124 David showed that he also recognized the flip side of this truth: If God was not on the side of the Israelites, they would have been swallowed up by their enemies (v. 3) and drowned in the flood waters of life (v. 4). He knew that the only thing protecting the Israelites was the favor of God.

David concluded this psalm by giving the Lord full credit for Israel’s blessings: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (v. 8). Let those words sink in for a moment. If the one “who made heaven and earth” is truly your Helper and the Helper of your nation, you have absolutely nothing to fear.

“If God Is for Us…”

However, Romans 8:31 doesn’t promise that God will automatically be on your side or your nation’s side. The verse begins with a big “IF…” It’s only “if” God is for us that we can be assured of success and victory.

So how can we really be sure that God is truly for us and for our nation? It’s presumptuous to think a nation will always have God’s favor, just because of its past Christian heritage. Yet many people think that way. “Of course God is on our side!” they confidently say. “Over the centuries, we’ve had a rich history of godly leaders, revivals, and missionaries. Certainly the Lord will back us in the battles we face today.”

Not so fast. Many of the same chapters that promise God’s covenant blessings when we obey Him also warn that His blessings will be withdrawn if we turn our back on Him (for example, Deuteronomy 8:18-20 and 28:15-68).

American President Abraham Lincoln, like King David, recognized nations are only blessed to the fullest extent when their God is the Lord. He warned that nations must not presumptuously think they will continue to experience God’s blessings, despite their pride and disobedience:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness…

(Presidential Proclamation “Appointing a Day of
National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer,”
March 30, 1863).

Whose Side Are YOU On?

Shortly before Joshua would lead the Israelites in a battle against Jericho, he had a highly unusual encounter with a mighty angel of God:

He lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” (Joshua 5:13).

Joshua recognized that this was a very important question. If this powerful angel was going to fight on his side, he had nothing to fear. But there was going to be big trouble if the angel had come to support Israel’s adversaries.

Nevertheless, this may seem like a strange question in some ways. Couldn’t Joshua have safely assumed the angel of the Lord would be on Israel’s side rather than supporting their pagan enemies?

Surprisingly, the angel didn’t really answer Joshua’s question. Joshua was seeking assurance that the angel armies had shown up to support the Israelites, and his question asked for a simple reply: Are you with US or THEM?

However, the angel said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come” (v. 14).

This is a sobering story if you are seeking confirmation that God is on your nation’s side today. The answer to Joshua’s question boiled down to this: The angelic army was there to support the purposes of God. If the Israelites aligned themselves with those purposes, Heaven’s army would come to their aid. But if they didn’t submit to the Lord’s plans, they couldn’t expect His help.

Realizing that he better immediately surrender to God’s messenger if he wanted to be assured of success and victory, “Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?’” (v. 14). Notice that he didn’t just ask for victory—he asked for divine instructions for how to proceed.

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Excerpt taken from Prayers to Change Your Nation by Inspiration Ministries

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